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Rishi	You all come through the cold and wintry forest and into what was once a large clearing, but is now dominated by a large and airy mansion. It looks vaugly like it was designed to look like an unfolded flower or plant and the front door is invightingly open. Inside, you find a large open hall with many comfortable couches of strange design, low tables full of bowls of wine, fruit, and nuts, and Rishi tending to a strange looking potted plant. She straightens up as you come in, a huge smile on her face. "Ah! Hello my friends! What is bringing all of you to my house, today?"
Bright Journey	There's quite a collection of people at the front door, all of whom Rishi knows. For her own part, Bright Journey doesn't look like herself...not yet, anyway. It takes a moment to realize it's her, with a hunter's worn leather outfit, plain bow and quiver, and boring medium brown hair blowing in the breeze. She's all smiles, though, a wicked little grin on her face as she and the rest step into Rishi's mansion. "Good morning! It's been quite a night for us, you understand, but not without success! But we should talk inside..." She grins more widely and steps to one side, allowing the others in as she speaks.
Silk Moon Lotus	An older woman that Rishi knows to be Silk wearing another face stands next to Bright the hunter. "Yes, quite the excitement. We came straight here with our treasures." She smiles a weary smile at Rishi. "And perhaps you could change me back as well? My disguise is no longer needed. It did work quite well."
Amethyst	Amethyst bows just slightly as she enters. "It has definitely been an interesting day." Tired ears go down. "But I think we did something interesting today. Maybe at last I can fill the holes in my faith with something more substantial than what the immaculate order's books have to say." She rolls her eyes just slightly and finds a seat.
Spring Wind	Nibblenibble. There's a small rodent eating a cube of cheese from a plate on a nearby table, who then perks up at Amethyst's appearance before diving off the table towards her. Next thing she might know however, she's being hugged by a very human Spring Wind, and possibly pinned. "Heya!" she says, grinning.
Rishi	Rishi nods and waves people inside. "Oh, of course, of course! Though my offer of changes or improvements is still being standing for all of you." Her smile gets a little impish there. Rishi's eyes light up "Ah! What have you managed to get away with taking then?" she gestures to one of the emptier tables as she starts on removing Silk's wrinkles. "You may be putting things there as you like. Also be having the food and the drink, for it it most excellent and the house is producing it through the magics, so have all you are wishing." Rishi gets a slight wistful look as Spring tackles Ammy, but only says "I really hope you got what you needed from them, Ammy.
Bright Journey	To be sure, Bright does not miss that wistful look from Rishi, but is more than tactful enough to stay quiet on that front. Instead, she flips her hair behind her, sets down her bow and quiver and has a seat at the food. "Thank you, Rishi, I do believe I'll take you up on that. We've had a heck of a walk and quite a bit of tension before then, so I'm all kinds of starving." Bright puts plan to action, digging in while she watches everyone else. She's not really as involved in the emotional aspect of this, never having the upbringing Amethyst did, so she does her best to not get in the way.
Amethyst	"Ack!" Surprised ears go back. It doesn't take the water dragon long to worm her way out from Spring's grasp. Amethyst is almost aggressive about it. And then it registers who was hugging her and she sighs. "Hey Spring. Sorry." Someone is a little moody right now. The little alchemist takes a seat and starts eating some of the fruit.
Silk Moon Lotus	Silk walks over to the table. "Shall we have a look at what we aquired?" Silk takes off the well worn backpack and opens the leather flap on top. She slowly takes each of the scrolls out and carefully places each of them on the table. Each of the scrolls has the markings of the immaculate order's cataloging system on them. Silk picks up one of them and slides it gently towards Amethyst. "Perhaps this is something you will be interested in?" Silk takes another one from the table "Water Dragon style, an introduction."
Spring Wind	"Aww. Hey, it's fine." Spring says, standing up and walking over to the table. "You're not the first person to squeeze out, and you didn't even use a knife that time!.. Or ever, but people /have/ stabbed me when I've grabbed them before. Usually has to do with me saying, 'Give me your coinpurse you poncey shit'." she observes, the recounted threat being given a tone of mock seriousness. "But enough about muggings gone oddly, establishing what the haul was would be good."
Bright Journey	Now here is what Bright was waiting for! Her focus isn't really 'loot', per se, as a rule, but it's hard to avoid that thrill of discovery. She finishes the nibble she'd been working on and perks up, looking over at Silk as she opens the first scrolls. "Water Dragon Style? Now, isn't that interesting," Bright murmurs. "Now -that- is not the kind of thing they want people outside the monastery to know. But I suppose there's always some who do. And if you're that interested, Silk, perhaps you'll be along them." Bright actually sounds slightly reverent for a moment, and looks at Spring curiously, with a touch of bemusement. "Mugging? Dare I ask?"
Rishi	Rishi frowns. "Please not to be moving Silk until I am being finished. Well, unless you are actually wanting a second mouth. I can be making it quite artistic!" Once she's finished returning Silk to normal, Rishi gets a shy smile and pulls out a small and much battered book and places it on the table as well. "I found a copy of a basic primer on the Pure Way, that form of the Immaculates that is being worshipped closer to the lands I am being from. I thought you might be finding it of interest, as a contrast with these books."
Silk Moon Lotus	"I admit, I did grab a lot of documents on martial arts styles. It couldn't be helped. I thought they had some styles they have kept hidden in the archives." She holds still while Rishi finishes changing her face back to the way it was and shakes out her mane of black hair now that it has been restored. "Bright, I grabbed this one, I saw it said watch list and I thought it might be what you wanted me to grab." Silk gentle tosses the scroll to Bright. "Either way, the watch list is now a bunch of immaculate priests from the Blessed Isle. I hear they are all demon possessed or something like that."
Amethyst	Amethyst's face widens just a little as the manual is given to her. "Water Dragon Style." She takes a few looks inside of it, all of the principles and disciplines that come with it. Her anima just faintly glows as she considers the fact that tho she might not have had a chance to study with them, their work is now in her hands. And then just as quickly her glow vanishes when she hears Rishi and squints at the book. "The Pure Way... I've heard of them. It's from Prasad. They believe they are not just descended from gods nor that the dragons have a right to rule at the top of the spiritual heirarchy, they call themselves gods. They're openly worshiped by the population. Very, very heretical, but they send their tribute like any good realm satrapy, tho I wouldn't say the realm has much influence with them. Certainly the Order has just learned to live with what they're doing." Amethyst sighs. Then she grins at Rishi, "Do you want to start calling me a god?"
Spring Wind	"Hahaha, oh man. I have /stories/." Spring says with a wicked grin. "It's amazing what people will give you or tell you when they think you're going to perform an obscure icewalker ritual on them. All I really need to do is make a big, big show about horrible people dying and they spill their guts." pause. "...OK, well, not literally. It takes, 'Empty shell animated by greed and hate' levels of bile for me to do something like that." pause. "OK so..." Spring says, inhaling sharply through her nose and pressing her palms together before pointing the pressed palms at the general area of those gathered. "I have seen gods be pretty solid folks before. This is some new entitled shittiness, and I kind of want to eat one of these people for giving the beloved grandparent style deities a bad name. Not ancestor cults, like the actual harvest or land god who loves the people near him and damn near may as well be a family member."
Bright Journey	With a careful hand, Bright brushes away a thin layer of dust from the scroll Silk tossed her. It's not old, to be sure, but it's carefully written. Bright undoes the ties and unspools it slowly as she looks at Silk and laughs. "Hah! Now that is an inspired choice, if I do say so myself. I wonder how long it will take them to realize the scroll is bunk. But I'm happy for you all, too. It sounds like we made away with some critical information. Maybe the two of you can study your Water Dragon Style together." The scroll in her hands is open, and Bright takes a long, searching moment to read through it. She's not ecstatic, perhaps, but she nods with finality as she gets through the last line. It's clearly a list of some sort. "This isn't quite what I was hoping for, unfortunately, but it's almost as good. Not anathema, but gods and spirits they need to keep an eye on. Names, locations, and most importantly, -reasons-. We could still do a lot with this."
Rishi	Rishi blushes deeply at Ammy's comment about calling her a god, even as she headtilts and says "...maybe..." At the others comments about the gods, Rishi grabs hold of the chance to change the subject. "Ah, these "troublesome" gods, you are thinking that they are maybe being allies, yes? What kinds are being on that list?"
Silk Moon Lotus	Silk keeps going through the scrolls looking for anything else interesting "What's a Holy Warrior against the Darkness style? I think they just started describing it instead of what the style is actually called on this one." She picks up another scroll "Here's something about the elemental dragons Ames." She slides it over to the pile for Amethyst to look through. Silk looks at Bright "So, troublesome gods, sounds interesting and maybe worth a visit."
Amethyst	Amethyst looks equal parts concerned and fascinated by Rishi's reaction. But she continues, "Perhaps after our incursion into the wyld. I might consider the idea after I've done a Sapphire-level working." Even if that's not particularly notable among the Lunars and Solars, it certainly is notable for a Dragon-Blooded, especially one so young as her. And then she starts to dig into these scrolls, skimming them over, and starting to organize them. "Oh, this is the one on Anathema." With a cheeky grin, she looks to the gathered party, and decides that this one also goes in the pile for her to read later. "Tho I wish I could have stayed and at least spend some amount of time with my own kind, I think these will do nicely in helping me patch up my own faith. Thank you." And there's something about her tone that seems to say that there would have been /problems/ if they had gone to all of this effort and just stole the things they wanted and not what she was looking for.
Bright Journey	"Mmmm, perhaps," Bright replies, humming a bit to herself as she reads the scroll one more time--skimming it, really. "What I really want to know is how accurate the scroll is. I don't trust these monks to know honor from a privy. But we should at least keep these accusations in mind before going to talk to any of these gods." She taps one name on the scroll and looks at everyone else. "For instance, this one just says, 'heretical worship'. Not sure I care who they get to worship them unless it's coerced, you know? But down here there's one that this scroll claims 'murder and banditry'. I'd kind of want to know what the truth is before making friends." She grins and furls the scroll again, looking at Amethyst. "Hey, thanks for coming up with the idea. I'm glad you seem to have found what you're looking for. I almost did, I guess, and at least we have a lot of possible leads to track down with these."
Rishi	Rishi starts looking through the pile of scrolls as well, but grabs the scroll about Anathema from the pile and unrolls it. "I am being most curious as to exactly what they are saying about those such as myself." she looks over at Ammy "Do you mind?". Assuming Ammy assents, she flops onto a nearby couch and undulates back, various parts of her anatomy moving in enticing ways as she does, until she is properly lounging, reading the scroll with a small frown.
Amethyst	"Just remember that this isn't the realm. The Immaculate Philosophy preached by the Realm definitely would be something to suspect, but I like to think Lookshy Sohei would be a little less corrupt and a bit more understanding. Certainly their founding principles aren't all that bad." Amethyst says. Someone's been reading books about Lookshy lately. Also Bright instantly realizes that the monk that was speaking with her would have no trouble convincing Amethyst to join their ranks. And Amethyst looks at Rishi. She looks a little unsettled, as she wanted to read the scroll in private for herself. But then she relents and nods. She isn't about to tell Rishi no in her own home.
Silk Moon Lotus	Silk picks up the scroll of the holy warrior style, grabs some food, and a drink. She picks a couch that looks comfortable and sits down to read and eat. She is quickly engrossed in the details of the style mumbling about needing a staff or spear.
Spring Wind	"Well, sneaking and finding out information people don't want me to know should be easy enough." Spring says, "The half-heard gasp, the curse shouted by a proud soul, the secret bemusement of those wronged... And of course, the scurrying of tiny rodent feet. The colors upon my palette, placed into the image of my life." she observes, grinning.
Rishi	Rishi's frown deepens as she reads the scroll. Once finished, she lays it on the nearest side table, her eyes hooded and her head tilted, deep in thought. Almost absently, she grabs a bowl of wine off a table and takes a couple of large swallows.
Bright Journey	Yeah, it's about that time. Bright's scroll is immensely useful, but not exactly engrossing reading--more like a reference text than a fascinating book. On the other hand, there's plenty of engrossing material still around. Silk got a fistful of scrolls, not all of which was immediately what they were searching for. Instead, the pink-haired one gets up long enough to hunt through the collection, eventually settling on a scroll of fables from the Shogunate. It's hard to keep the monk's diatribe from her mind, and his passion and drive drift through her mind as she sits down with the scroll, pensive and thoughtful as she reads.
Amethyst	For her part, Amethyst looks into some of the scrolls about the, huh, there's actually two different ones here, one about the Elemental Dragons, and one about the Immaculate Dragons. She starts with the one on the Immaculate Dragons. Of course, they're stories she's well familiar with. But it does actually confirm that they were once Dragons themselves, perhaps like herself or the ones alive today. And then when she looks into the one on the Elemental Dragons, she realizes she had a critical wire crossed. They aren't one and the same! Of course the Immaculate Dragons all perished in time, it is the nature of aging. But the Elemental Dragons they join with, the mighty beings that gave birth to the terrestrial bloodlines, they are very real and very alive, tho, no one has seen or heard from them in a long, long time. And maybe, just maybe, Amethyst is close to finally knitting this hole in her faith closed.